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Abstract #2101

Early Compensatory Changes Within the Memory Network of Multiple Sclerosis Patients

Hanneke E. Hulst1, Stefan D. Roosendaal1, Menno M. Schoonheim1, Lizanne J. Schweren1, Ysbrand D. van der Werf2, Chris H. Polman3, Frederik Barkhof1, Jeroen J. Geurts1,4

1Radiology, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands; 2Clinical Neurophysiology, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands; 3Neurology, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands; 4Pathology, VU University Medical Center , Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands


Cognitive decline is frequently seen in multiple sclerosis (MS). This study investigates the changes in hippocampal activation patterns in MS. Functional MRI, an encoding- and retrieval paradigm, was acquired of 24 cognitively preserved (CP) and 10 cognitively impaired (CI) MS patients and 15 healthy controls (HC). Where CP patients only showed increased brain activation in the dorsal streams of the memory system, CI patients showed reduced brain activation in the (para)hippocampal areas and the ventral stream of the memory system. Our findings indicate that functional reorganization takes place early in the disease course and is a finite phenomenon in MS.